Lost and Found

It's 1948 and the TARDIS has landed in post-war London as life is attempting to get back to normal. People are out and about once more, and flagship department store Henrik's is back in business like nothing has happened. Polly remembers going there as a child with her mother and losing her favourite teddy bear. Ben remembers looking for terrible things with his mates in the bomb craters. The Doctor starts having conversations with tins of baked beans. And then Polly realizes that they have arrived on the same day she lost her bear - and she's about to meet her past.

Lots of interesting notions in Lost and Found , and given that this is one of the Short Trips line from Big Finish there is not much time to let something pan out before the next concept is brought in. At 37 minutes though it is only 5 minutes shorter than an episode of the current TV series, which makes the pacing a bit more understandable. But in among the Doctor's chats with baked beans (there's more to it than that) and Ben being sarcastic, we're given more about Polly's backstory once more. This time we're told of her childhood, of a more innocent and young Polly who lost her teddy bear one day while out shopping with mummy, and her impressions of the world around her. There's not time to delve into her dreams of the future, though; the pace of the story demands a re-focus on other issues like the Doctor's odd conversations and hidden aliens who can stop time.

The thing about Short Trips when reviewed on their own is there is not as much to say about them as the longer episodes - not without going through the plot line by line - so the blog post is also a short one. But there is this to point out, and it's just an Easter egg of sorts: Henrik's department store will be a feature in the new series, starting with the episode Rose in the 2005 season. Then will dawn an era where the companion backstory gets a lot more fleshing out than ever before, and the new companions will seem that much more real. So far Polly has received a fair bit of attention in this respect, as have previous companions through either Big Finish or the three publishers producing their tales, although I would say Dodo Chaplet certainly got the most surprising reveals. With Polly, there is nothing extraordinary in her past, just blonde debutante adventures in the posh parts of London.

Are we ever going to get a Ben backstory episode?

NEXT EPISODE: THE HIGHLANDERS